Pompeii

Last Updated: 2nd Sep 2012

Pompeii is a today a small town in the south of Italy, just south of Naples. The city’s name however has forever been etched into history as the city that was buried by the volcanic eruption of the nearby Mt Vesuvius in 79 AD and people travel from all over th world to visit the archaeological site that was once an ancient city.

The eruption that covered the doomed city with tonnes of soot, rock, ash and lava left the city totally buried and lost – nothing more than a myth. The ancient city was discovered in the late 19th century and excavations since have uncovered some of the most storied artifacts of all time. The famous casts of the people who stayed on in the city and who were covered by the explosion are some of the most famous relics of the site and although most of them are in a museum in Naples, there are still a number of these grim reminders in the archaeological site.

The city itself has been extremely well preserved and walking through the shops, houses, markets, streets and even the red light district of Pompeii is like taking a step back into the incredibly advanced civilization that was the Roman Empire.

Many people draw parallels between Pompeii and Ephesus, another ancient Roman City in Turkey.